incommensurable
in-kuh-MEN-shur-uh-buhl
/ˌɪn.kəˈmen.ʃər.ə.bəl/
Not able to be judged or measured by the same standards or units of comparison.
In philosophy of science, two paradigms are incommensurable if their concepts are so fundamentally different that they cannot be directly translated or compared using a neutral language.
The story behind the word. Derived from Ancient Greek mathematics (irrational numbers like the square root of 2 having no common measure with whole numbers). Early modern Latin adapted it to mean lacking a common metric, and Thomas Kuhn introduced it to philosophy of science in 1962.
Word relationships
- incompatible: Incompatible means two things cannot coexist, while incommensurable specifically means they lack a shared standard of measurement.
- untranslatable: Untranslatable focuses on language, while incommensurable applies broadly to standards and conceptual frameworks.
- commensurable: Measurable by the same standard or common metric.
- comparable: Able to be compared directly using shared criteria.
Commonly confused with
- incommensurate: Incommensurate means out of proportion or disproportionate (e.g., salary incommensurate with effort), whereas incommensurable means lacking a common measure or standard for comparison.
Word family
- incommensurability (noun): The state of having no common standard of measurement
- incommensurably (adverb): In an incommensurable manner
Collocations
- incommensurable paradigms
- incommensurable concepts
- fundamentally incommensurable
- incommensurable worldviews
Example sentences
- "Kuhn argued that competing paradigms are incommensurable because scientists live in different conceptual worlds." Philosophy of science (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Thomas Kuhn))
- "The terms 'mass' in classical physics and 'mass' in relativity are fundamentally incommensurable." Conceptual shifts
Memory hook
IN-COM-MENSURABLE = INcapable of COMmon MEASURement. No shared yardstick.
When not to use
Do not use simply to mean 'very large' or 'immense' (use 'incommensurate' or 'immense').
Fun facts
- The ancient Greek discovery that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side so shocked the Pythagoreans that legend says they drowned the man who revealed it!
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